1. Field of the Invention
Being a major factor in maintaining or improving the economy of every country of the world, energy, most particularly the oil form, has been imposing more and more critical problems to all nations, it being a disappearing material aside from being a polutant and not available to all nations. Nuclear energy, aside from being costly and unsafe, is not also available to all nations. To ease these problems, efforts had been more exerted than ever to explore and make use of the alternative and regenerative energies that do not use the fuel oil, such as, the wind, the solar, the ocean energy, and the municipal wastes.
In this invention, particular attention is concentrated on the maximum harnessing of the ocean waves in the maximum efficiency and effectiveness of energy convertion out of whatever size or amplitude of available water-wave that arrives at the structure to actuate the energy converter system. It is also the objective of this invention to maximize production of consumable energy (compressed air, electricity, or hydrogen gas) out of the water-waves at any weather condition, and at any location of the body of water or any part of the ocean, in the most simple and safest way, and in the least cost of construction and least cost of maintenance with high durability.
2. Description of Prior Art
A. Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,624, dated July 10, 1979, "Water Vehicle-Actuated Air Compressor and Systems Therefor" by Smith, the paddles, which are submerged at the bottom of the barge, are actuated by the tilting and oscillation movements of the barge and not by the direct impact of the waves. This kind of design of an energy converter works only with the modulated water waves, so it must be placed away from rough seas and away from the beaches where the surfs stand up and break, otherwise, the whole system will be destroyed, or build the system into a very heavy out of proportion structure. This air compressor by Smith can work to some extent but without much expectation of its performance because there are glaring drawbacks and limitations, such as, the following:
a. The floating barge in open sea will be tossed up and down causing wear and tear, and reducing the durability and efficiency of all the parts. Actually it will require a very heavy structure of construction to withstand the stresses imparted by the big surf specially during violent weather. The anchor chain must be strong enough to hold the barge against the heavy impact of the surf on the wide side of the barge. In the same manner, the structures holding the anchor chain must be strong enough to keep holding the chain, otherwise, the whole barge will be torn apart into pieces. It therefor requires a very high cost of construction to withstand the forces of the waves during violent weather. This will result to a very low ratio of energy production against cost of construction and maintenance.
b. As per construction of the barge and the relative quantities and sizes of the paddles together with the steel compressed air tank and other machineries loaded on the barge, most of the energy brought in by the incoming water-wave will be spent splashing on the side of the barge and in tossing-up the heavy structure barge. Therefor, only a very small percentage of the energy offered by the waves is use to actuate the paddles.
c. The presented design of the paddles (parts #202 and 240), the compression cylinders (218), and the piston (220), as shown in the drawings, no matter how they will be modified, as a water-wave actuated compressor is limited to a certain size or amplitude of the waves because, if the amplitudes of the waves are relatively shorter than the length of the compression cylinder the piston does not reach the dead end of the compression cylinder resulting to a situation where the entrapped air will not be compressed far enough so it will refuse to enter the storage tank which is supposed to be in high pressure to contain plenty of energy reserved therein; and if the size or amplitude of the waves are relatively longer than the length of the compression cylinder the piston will hit the dead end of the cylinder and stops there too early. The remaining part of the long wave amplitude will be spent or destroyed needlessly pushing the already locked or dead paddles, pressing it against the limiting walls of the barge, and tends to destroy the bearings and the connectors or the whole system. These special features of the patented design of the actuator-compression system limits the conversion of energy to a small quantity or a small percentage of the aboundant energy offered by the ocean waves.
d. During calm weather when the ocean waves are small, the heavy barge which is designed to withstand the big surfs will just be flattening the waves resulting to a zero efficiency, no production because there will be no oscillation.
e. There is no plurality of storage tank to meet the opportunity to store more energy.
B. Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 1,887,316 dated Nov. 8, 1932 presented by J. A. LOCKFAW, the compressor System consisting of the Paddle, the Piston Rod, the Piston, the Compression Cylinder are constructed in the same manner as that presented by Smith. It can also work but with the following drawbacks and problems encountered:
a. This invention has the same problem encountered as problem No. 3 cited for Smith's which concerns the amplitude of the water-wave, which I hereby submit as objectionable feature and limitations of the design in its effectivity and efficiency of converting the available energy of the surfs. Plenty of wave energy will be wasted due to this problem.
b. There is much problem of inconvenience in adjusting the compressor or the system to synchronize with sizes of the incoming waves as the gearing-in or the gearing-out of the stand-by compression chambers has to be done manually which requires a full time operator.
c. This design requires a full time operator to operate the car in adjusting the location of the power-board to synchronize with the elevation of the tides. This is also a problem of inconvenience.
d. A problem of durability is also an impedement to using this design because it will rust in salt water and easily destroyed by the waves during violent weather.
C. Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 1,061,091 dated May 6, 1913 by J. C. LEWIS, this design works good as a water pump provided there is no violent weather. But to make it work as an air compressor, the pump being simple, the problem of varrying amplitude or wave sizes will again present the impedement for commercial use of this invention.
D. Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 2,028,331 dated Jan. 21, 1936 by Hermann Janicke--a free piston three stage compressor, the following problems are present and impeds the commercial use of this design:
a. It requires fuel oil to make it work;
b. If it will be modified with a system so that the piston be actuated by the water waves, the problem on the varrying amplitude of the waves will again be unsolved. That means, as cited problem No. C on Smith's compressor, the pump is limited to a particular size or amplitude of waves in relation with the length of compression chamber, it being a simple pump even if constructed into a multi-stage compressor. If the piston moves halfway or 3/4 of the length of the cylinder due to seasonal small waves available, the entrapped air partially compressed refuses to enter the storage tank and it will just kick the piston backward without storing energy because--(a) there are no valves in the pistons, (b) there are no valves at the rear end walls of the last compression cylinder, (c) the hollow piston, 2nd stage, is a hide out of partially compressed air that cannot be stored which will just kick the piston backward even if the piston has moved to the full length of the compression chamber. Thus, this pump presented by Janicke is a very poor performer when it is used to convert the energy of the water waves resulting to a very low ratio of production against cost.
E. Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 1,219,873 dated Aug. 7, 1924 by Maximilian F. Juruick of the United States of America, a two (2) stage piston compressor wherein the smaller piston has to occupy the whole length and width of the second chamber because there is no partition wall between the first and the second chamber--a condition that makes the piston into a very heavy block of metal that consumes a lot of energy just to move it back and forth, specially when built to have large diameter for the purpose of moving large quantities of air. This is the major error obstructing the economic use of said compressor. The second error of this compressor is--that the compressed air in chamber #27 is being allowed to expand again, passing thru valve #31 to occupy a larger chamber #15--which is a set back in the compression effort and a lose of a lot of energy. The third error of this design is--that the succeeding smaller chambers cannot be extended to have three or more compression stages because it will only be a stepped one-stage compression chamber having a stepped piston. This design is limited to only two (2) stages of compression. Incorporating valves in the pistons does not increase the number of stages to three or more. Further, the piston can not be made thin and light when this pump is built to be large diameter (10 to 20 feet) for used as vacuum pump driven by the large water waves. Further, unlike the multistage compressor pump subject of the present case, this pump by Juruick is not an axial-flow pump which requires a construction of a heavy metal block around the compression chambers to accommodate the passage ways of high pressure gases.
F. Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 3,190,545 dated June 22, 1965 by H. Weber of the United States of America, this is likewise a compressor limited to three (3) stages of compression due to, as pointed out in the above design by Juruick, the objectives of the design which is to make the pistons occupy the whole length and width of the chambers--a condition that creates a heavy block of metal if the diameter of the chamber is enlarged, and it is not feasible to add a 4th or 5th stage high pressure chamber because there is a piston rod passing thru the end walls on the left section of the pump that require very tight sealer packaging that creates friction resisting the movements of the piston rod. Further, unlike the pump subject of the present case, this pump by Mr. Weber has no partition walls between chambers and there are no valves incorporated in the pistons, hence, it is not an axial-flow piston pump, and hence, it cannot work with the varying amplitudes of the water waves.
G. Referring to U.S. Pat. No. 411,252 dated Sept. 17, 1889 by Gustav Metzger of Newark, N.J., U.S.A., a two (2) stage compressor wherein the 3rd stroke which is the upward movement of the plunger cylinder C, is already a discharge stroke moving the gas into cylinder D which is actually a storage tank it being a much larger space than cylinder C. Again, the big error in this design is, that cylinder C is a very large heavy metal block that consumes a lot of energy just to move it up and down because it is a piston that occupies the whole second chamber B, and which is further extended upward to contain the large discharge cylinder D. This glaring error is several times multiplied when this design of compressor is enlarged to have a diameter of 10 ft to 20 ft to work as a vacuum pamp driven by the water waves. The second error is that the gas leaks cannot be put back into the compression chambers. Further, this design cannot be expanded to 3 or 5 compression stages.
H. Referring to the U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,609 dated Sept. 5, 1978, by Anton Braun of Edina, Minn., U.S.A., a two (2) stage compressor using double acting pistons wherein there are no valves incorporated in the pistons. One advantage of this design is that it can be expanded to have three (3) or five (5) compression stages under one piston rod, but the big error in this design is, that there are so many chambers requiring construction of heavy walls to form the relatively large passageways around and in-between the compression chambers. The flat walls (not cylindrical) must be strong enough to withstand the high pressures specially when the diameter of the pistons are enlarged to work on big volumes, resulting to a very heavy metal block to house said compressor. The second error is, that the piston rod will be very long and too heavy just to move a few pistons--because of the distances, in-between the compression chambers, thru which said piston rod traverses. The third error is, that there are so many anti-leak packing requirements to seal gas leaks in-between chambers around the piston rod, thereby creating too much friction acting on the piston rod and resisting the free movement of said piston rod.
In summary, all the aforementioned prior arts failed to meet the requirements of the varying sizes of the water waves, aside from having low output/input Ratio.